The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory, and more specifically to an art that can be effectively adapted to, for example, CMOS (complementary MOS) static RAM (random access memory).
A semiconductor memory such as a static RAM effects the access with a relatively small number of bits such as one bit, four bits or eight bits, as a unit. Accompanying the progress in the semiconductor technology, furthermore, RAM's have been produced having very large memory capacities. Therefore, if the access is effected with a small number of bits, a tremendous number of memory cycles must be effected to set the initial condition or to write the data for clearing operation.
To set the initial condition of the RAM has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 124094/1984.